coming in at number three on the list was preventing middle class tax hikes while raising taxes on the highest levels of income. that was the third greatest accomplishment of the president's first term, according to the latest nbc poll. number two, killing bin laden. killing osama bin laden is what president obama himself refers to as the single most important day of his presidency. for americans at large, that was number two. what ranked higher than that? what did americans think was the single best accomplishment of his first term, even better than killing bin laden? it was ending the war in iraq. president obama campaigned on ending the war in iraq in 2008. he was against that war right from the very start, and in december 2011, after eight and a half years of war, the president, as he promised, did bring the iraq war to a close. when president obama took the office -- took the oath of office four years ago, there were 144,000 u.s. troops in iraq. today it is about 200. that right there is what americans consider about the single greatest accomplishment of his first term. heading in